It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Star Trek: Picard, season 5 of Outlander, season 3 of Westworld, The Outsider, Avenue 5, Motherland: Fort Salem, The Plot Against America, the latest convention cancellations due to the corona virus and much more.
Speculative fiction in general:
- Eric Brown offers a round-up of the best recent science fiction and fantasy.
- Carly Lane and Kayleigh Donaldson recommend ten SFF romance books to read this March.
- Maggie Stiefvater shares five SFF books about the magic of creativity.
- Elyse Martin shares fantasy books with footnotes.
- James Davis Nicoll takes a look at five SFF characters who used to be bad people, but are trying to do better.
- Tor.com lists eight SFF characters who communicate with animals.
- T.J. Clune shares five SFF cats he loves.
- Tor.com shares eight SFF characters related to the Green Man.
- Lauren Jackson offers SFF book recommendations for fans of true crime.
- Hepzibah Anderson explains why the works of Octavia E. Butler are so relevant today.
- Jason Boog discuss a new study about diversity in romance publishing.
- Alex Segura profiles Howard Chaykin.
- Corrina Lawson is annoyed by the inevitably tragic fate of superhero babies.
- Jason Sacks reports about the Avengers' first line-up change in 1965.
- Julia Savoca Gibson remembers the two female Robins in eighty years of Batman history, Carrie Kelley and Stephanie Brown.
- Rosie Knight shares over one hundred comics you can read for free right now.
- Massimo Carlotto explains how Italian booklovers are coping with the corona virus shutdown.
- Con runner and fan Kate Hatcher has died aged 45.
Film and TV:
- Gwen Ihnat declares that The Letter for the King takes too long to fulfill its ambitious quest.
- Emma Fraser discusses how pregnancy is used as a weapon in The Handmaid's Tale and the latest version of The Invisible Man, both starring Elisabeth Moss.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw declares that The Hunt already feels embarrassingly dated.
- Leah Schnelbach talks about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the path of resistance.
- Nicasio Andres Reed shares his thoughts on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
- Brandon O'Brien declares that Nakia from Black Panther was right.
- Andrew Pulver asks if horror film studio Blumhouse is the new Hammer Horror.
- Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on season 2 of Kingdom.
- Martin Belam shares his thoughts on the reconstruction of the missing 1967 Doctor Who serial "The Faceless Ones".
- Germain Lussier revisits the 1990 comic book crime movie Dick Tracy for its 30th anniversary.
- Benjamin Lee revisits the horror movie Final Destination for its 20th anniversary.
- Adam Pockross shares some background on the original 1933 King Kong.
- Stuart Heritage takes a look at the mayor in the 1975 disaster movie Jaws and wonders what his character means for our times.
- Leza Cantoral discusses the 1909 murder of Hazel Drew which inspired the 1990 TV show Twin Peaks.
- Alyse Wax interviews Nicole Maines who plays Dreamer in Supergirl.
- Adam Chitwood interviews Jade Tailor, one of the stars of The Magicians.
- Christian Holub interviews Noelle Stevenson, showrunner of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
- Oscar Schwartz reports that dog actors are increasingly being replaced by CGI in movies and TV shows.
- Jing Daily reports about the toxic fandom of Chinese actor Xiao Zhan which caused AO3 to be banned in China among other things.
- Christina Orlando shares five spooky fiction podcasts to enjoy.
- Trent Moore reports that Legends of Tomorrow will cross over with Supernatural.
- Catherine Shoard reports that the release of Mulan, New Mutants and Antlers has been postponed because the corona virus.
- Andrew Liptak reports that Black Widow has been delayed as well due to the corona virus.
- James Whitbrook traces the impact of the corona virus on various film and TV productions.
- Tor.com also lists all of the SFF TV shows that have suspensed production due to the corona virus.
- Patrick Gomez also explains what will happen to the TV shows who had their productions suspended due to the corona virus.
- Actor Stuart Whitman has died aged 92.
- Actor Lyle Waggoner, best known for playing Steve Trevor in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV show, had died aged 84.
Comments on Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek in general (warning, spoilers):
- Zack Handlen shares his thoughts on "Broken Pieces", the latest episode of Star Trek Picard.
- James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on "Broken Pieces".
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw shares her thoughts on "Broken Pieces".
- Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on "Broken Pieces".
- Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "Broken Pieces".
- James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on "Broken Pieces".
- Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on "Broken Pieces".
- Ryan Britt wonders which Star Trek: The Next Generation characters could make a cameo appearance in the Star Trek Picard series finale.
- Camestros Felapton revisits the Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale "All Good Things".
- Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits season 1 of Star Trek Voyager.
- Keith R.A. DeCandido also revisits the Star Trek Voyager episode "The 37s".
- Ryan Britt explains how an Easter egg in Star Trek Picard links to the works of Larry Niven.
- Former US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg interviews Sir Patrick Stewart, the star of Star Trek Picard.
- Watch a video of Sir Patrick Stewart and Pete Buttigieg playing a Star Trek trivia game.
- Christian Bone reports that a Captain Pike Star Trek spin-off is supposedly in development.
- Camestros Felapton muses about the many ways to build a replicator.
Comments on season 5 of Outlander:
- Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Outlander.
- Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Outlander.
Comments on season 3 of Westworld:
- Rob Bricken shares his thoughts on "Parce Domine", the season 3 premiere of Westworld.
- Theresa DeLucci shares her thoughts on "Parce Domine".
- Paul MacInnes shares his thoughts on "Parce Domine".
- Zack Handlen shares his thoughts on "Parce Domine".
- Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on "Parce Domine".
- Rebecca Nicholson shares her thoughts on "Parce Domine".
- Cheryl Eddy shares Westworld's twenty-five biggest holy shit moments so far.
Comments on The Outsider:
- Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the season 1 finale of The Outsider.
- Allison Shoemaker shares her thoughts on the season 1 finale of The Outsider.
Comments on Avenue 5:
- Tom Morton finds Avenue 5 and other science fiction comedies like Spaceballs or The Orville unfunny.
- Liz Shannon Miller shares her thoughts on the season 1 finale of Avenue 5.
Comments on Motherland: Fort Salem:
- Laura Bogart declares that Motherland: Fort Salem squanders its early potential.
- Jean Bentley calls Motherland: Fort Salem an uneven alternate history that should embrace its campiness.
Comments on The Plot Against America:
- Arielle Bernstein shares her thoughts on the TV adaptation of Philip Roth's alternate history novel The Plot Against America.
- Daniel Fienberg calls The Plot Against America flawed but timely.
- Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on The Plot Against America.
- Noel Murray shares his thoughts on The Plot Against America.
Awards:
- The finalists for the 2020 Rhysling Awards have been announced.
- The winners of the 2020 FAAn Awards have been announced.
- The finalists for the 2020 Benjamin Franklin Awards have been announced.
- The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction is open for submissions.
- The shortlists for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced.
- The winners of the 2020 Razzie Awards have been announced.
- The finalists for the 2020 World Video Game Hall of Fame have been announced.
- CGI pioneers Pat Hanrahan and Ed Catmull have won the Turing Award.
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- Kate Heartfield shares a free seven day course for building or rebuilding your writing practice.
- Damien Walter shares an open writing class.
- Cina Pelayo implores writers to stay positive and write.
- Kelly Lagor explains how to put the science into your science fiction.
- Emily Arsenault talks about the difficulties of writing a narcissistic character.
- Carlene O'Connor explains how Irish mythology has influenced her novels.
- Stephanie Wrobel discusses how to write perfect twist endings.
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch shares business advice for the age of the corona virus.
- B.V. Lawson shares some ideas about how to support your local indie bookstore during the corona virus crisis.
- Mike Glyer reports about a problematic candidate for Director at Large in the upcoming SFWA elections.
- Andrew Albanese reports that publisher Pan Macmillan has scrapped its controversial e-book embargo policy for libraries.
- Na Zhong reports about the impact of the corona virus on publishing and bookselling in China.
Interviews:
- Heather Rose Jones interviews Catherine Lundoff
- Paul Weimer interviews Ilana C. Myer.
- The Qwillery interviews S.A. Jones.
- Tyler Jones interviews Paul Tremblay.
- Andrea Johnson interviews Rita Woods.
- The Qwillery interviews EeLeen Lee.
- Scott Edelman interviews Michael Dirda.
- Christina Ladd interviews Nghi Vo.
- Anderson Tepper interviews Kawai Strong Washburn.
- Autumn Christian interviews Peter Clines.
- Annie Neugebauer interviews Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson.
Reviews:
- Paul Weimer reviews A Pale Light in the Black by K.B. Wagers.
- Kat Hooper reviews Terminal Uprising by Jim C. Hines.
- James Davis Nicoll reviews War of the Maps by Paul McAuley.
- Liz Bourke reviews Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey.
- Carolyn Cushman reviews A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris and The Case of the Spellbound Child by Mercedes Lackey.
- Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman review Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
- Marion Deeds reviews Stormsong by C.L. Polk.
- Marion Deeds reviews The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman.
- James Davis Nicoll reviews The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster.
- Kat Hooper reviews Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
- Maya Gittelman reviews The Electric Heir by Victoria Lee.
- Katharine Coldiron reviews Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton.
- Paul Weimer reviews A Queen in Hiding and The Queen of Raiders by Sarah Kozloff.
- Colleen Mondor reviews The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt.
- Rebecca Fisher reviews Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas.
- Kat Hooper and Rebecca Fisher reviews Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor.
- Rebecca Fisher reviews Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray.
- Tadiana Jones and Rebecca Fisher review The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo.
- James Davis Nicoll reviews Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi.
- Adri Joy reviews Pet by Akwaeke Emezi.
- Runalong the Shelves reviews Echo Cycle by Patrick Edwards.
- Ian Mond reviews The Heap by Sean Adams.
- Gabriella Tutino reviews The Fortress by S.A. Jones.
- Michael Patrick Hicks reviews 14 by Peter Clines.
- Paul Di Filippo reviews Rambunctious by Rick Wilber.
- Lesa Holstine reviews The Restorer by Amanda Stevens.
- Blue Book Balloon reviews The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher.
- Em Nordling reviews The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey.
- Matt Brandenburg reviews Cannibal Nuns From Outer Space by Duncan P. Bradshaw.
- Angela Maria Spring reviews Dark Constellations by Pola Oloixarac. translated by Roy Kesey.
- Mark Yon reviews Cursed, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane.
Classics reviews:
- Judith Tarr revisits the 1934 Ruritanian romance The Prince Commands: Being Sundry Adventures of Michael Karl, Sometime Crown Prince and Pretender to the Throne of Morvania by Andre Norton.
- Don Briago revisits the 1944 near future thriller The Delicate Ape by Dorothy B. Hughes.
- James Wallace Harris revisits the 1954 apocalyptic novel One in Three Hundred by J.T. McIntosh.
- Paperback Warrior revisits the 1958 juvenile delinquent novel Rumble a.k.a. Web of the City by Harlan Ellison.
- David D. Levine revisits the 1962 science fiction collection Hospital Station by James White.
- Gideon Marcus revisits the April 1965 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
- Victoria Silverwolf revisits the May 1965 issue of Worlds of Tomorrow.
- Sam Jordison revisits the 1966 dystopian novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison.
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1972 science fiction fix-up novel The Listeners by Jame Gunn.
- Brian A. Smith revisits the 1974 science fiction novel The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.
- Joachim Boaz revisits the 1977 science fiction novel In Solitary by Gary Kilworth.
- Joachim Boaz revisits the 1979 science fiction horror novel Electric Forest by Tanith Lee.
- Paperback Warrior revisits the My Way, a 1984 novel in the Wasteland post-apocalyptic series by James Barton.
Con and event reports:
- Rhea Mahbubani reports about the Smurf Festival in Landerneau, France.
- Andrew Liptak offers an overview of which conventions are cancelled or postponed due to the corona virus and whcih are still ongoing.
- CoNZealand, the 2020 WorldCon in Wellington, New Zealand, shares an official statement that they don't want to cancel the convention because of the corona virus, but that they will monitor the situation and keep members up to date.
- Mike Glyer reports that Armageddon Expo in Wellington, New Zealand, had to postpone their convention and rescheduled for the same dates as WorldCon.
- Mike Glyer reports that StokerCon in Scarborough, UK, is being postponed.
- Mike Glyer reports that MiniCon in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been cancelled.
- Mike Glyer reports that Norwescon 43 in Tukwila, Washington, has been cancelled because of the corona virus.
- Kim Williams reports that Marcon 55 in Worthington, Ohio, has been cancelled because of the corona virus.
- Alan Pollard reports that FilKONtario in Hamilton, Ontario, has been cancelled because of the corona virus.
- Micheal Rafferty reports that Balticon 54 in Baltimore, Maryland, has been cancelled because of the corona virus.
- Elisabeth Crefin reports that HELIOsphere in Tarrytown, New York, has been cancelled because of the corona virus.
- Johan Jönnson reports that Acon 11 in Mariehamn, Finland, has been postponed due to the corona virus.
- The Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention in Lombard, Illinois, has been postponed due to the corona virus.
- J.G. Faherty reports that the HWA Librarians Day in Naperville, Illinois, has been postponed as well.
- ConGlomeration in Louisville, Kentucky, has been cancelled because of the corona virus as well.
- LepreCon 46 in Chandler, New Mexico, is not yet cancelled, but they have lost their guest of honour.
- FantasyCon in London, UK, is not cancelled as well, though they're monitoring the situation.
- ClexaCon in Las Vegas, Nevada, reports that the convention will be postponed.
- Anime Boston in Boston, Massachusetts, reports that the convention has been cancelled as well because of the corona virus.
- Germain Lussier reports that Free Comic Book Day has been postponed.
- The 2020 Hay Literature Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, has been cancelled because of the corona virus, which puts the future of the festival in jeopardy.
- The 2020 Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, has been postponed due to the corona virus.
- George R.R. Martin's Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is closing because of the corona virus.
- Watch a behind the scenes video of the Boston Fan Expo in Boston, Massachusetts.
- A.A. Dowd reports about the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, which actually took place.
Crowdfunding:
Science and technology:
- Jonathan Amos reports that the mission of the ESA Mars rover Rosalind Franklin has been postponed until 2022.
- Ryan F. Mandelbaum reports that NASA's Mars InSight heat flow probe has resumed digging.
- Kenneth MacDonald reports that researchers of the University of Edinburgh have found a dinosaur "stomping ground" on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
- Apollo astronaut Al Worden has died aged 88.
Free online fiction:
- "The Sniper and I" by Rich Larson in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- "Truth As a Prize" by R.Z. Held in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- "Many Happy Returns" by Adam-Troy Castro in Lightspeed.
- "The Amusement Dark" by Mike Buckley in Clarkesworld.
- "A Guide for Working Breeds" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad at Tor.com.
- "Down in the Kettle Bog, or Julian and the Frogman" by Josie Nunez in Luna Station Quarterly.
- "Flashlight Man" by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor in Nightmare Magazine.
- "The Visitor: Kill or Cure" by Mark Lawrence at Tor.com.
- "Escaping Dr. Markoff" by Gabriella Santiago in The Dark.
- "Three Urban Folk Tales" by Eric Schaller in Lightspeed.
- "Cosmic Balances Inc." by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
- "The Cold Crowdfunding Campaign" by Cora Buhlert
